User blog:Ixsc15/The Sidelines - Stronghold Crusader 2 AI rankings (12.26.2018)
The Sidelines 'is a blog series with chilling off-wiki posts, far away from the heat of battle. Entry 1 - AI characters of Stronghold Crusader 2 SHC2, like its predecessor Stronghold Crusader, offers sixteen unique personalities to compete with. All of them have their distinct unit varieties, castles and strategies in order to prevail in the scorching and cruel desert. I spend quite some time playing against the AI, and while they are not much of a challenge on their own, in alliances can they shine and develop to their full power. Below is a non-comprehensive list for all the base game AI characters: strengths, weaknesses and personal rank. DLC characters are to come in a later post. Ranking sheet: *'The Rat: Jester **A well-known character from the Stronghold games, this foe is adept at early rushing, but fails to deliver in warfare. **Low-tier and low number of units make this character a potent rusher, but a useless enemy in open field. **Cheap castle and units means fast development. **Weak industry makes the Rat very dependent on raw materials, often leaving him without gold reserves to fall back on. **Castle designs include only single walls, sparsely spaced defenders and badly fortified positions. *'The Wolf': Baron **A mastermind with the intent of absolute power, the Wolf relies in variety instead of sheer power. **High unit variety provides great versatility, at the cost of combat power. While uses amored troops most of the time, siege attacks are abnormally one of the weakest from the Wolf. **Develops rather slowly, often investing in defenses rather than harassment. Big bulks of crossbowmen and swordsmen build slowly, but are a pain to deal with. **Industry is very well developed, yet not extensive. The Wolf relies on farms and mines more than anyone else during setting out. **Castles are symmetric, heavily fortified, with large blocks of sealed buildings. They take a lot of time to build, but very easily overlooked from numerous towers. *'Saladin': Baron **An adept of Arabian mercenaries, Saladin is a polished and rather straightforward strategist. **Uses almost all Arabian troops. Arabian bowmen and swordsmen are his specialty, but tosses in some utility units for a combined-arms approach. Horse archer raids are quite common. **Builds up quite fine. High taxes and specialized industry makes him able to pump out units all the time, without breaks. **Strong industry with bread and ale production. Lots of taxes provide him a steady background even in times of need. **Saladin's castles are very big with too many towers. While an abundant number of healers make losses sustainable, he lacks firepower from a distance. *'The Caliph': Knight **A cruel leader of the desert, the Caliph lashes out and relies on the power of fire. **His units are middle-tier, preferring agility over brute force. The Caliph likes swift slaves and horse archers to wreak havoc. He is sadly not adept enough at sieges. **Self-sufficient for most of the game. While not the best strategist, his offense more than makes up for the early stages in order to build up his castle. Has troubles with coming back. **Industry is fine enough, just like Saladin. Makes bread and ale. Cannot afford a huge number of units at once. **One of the smallest castles are from the Caliph with numerous lookout towers, pitch traps and haybale launchers. Cannot hold out in the long run, as his entire castle can burn down from the smallest ember, taking everything down. *'Richard the Lionheart': Knight **A good attacker, Richard puts more effort in offense than in defense. **Uses offensive troops with some durability. Archers and macemen are his trademarks for harassment. At sieges, he underperforms at most. Rangers are seen as great defenders. **Slow to develop, as he relies on weapon manufactures too much. Often covers large areas with his castles, which is also slow to complete. **Richard relies much on his weapons industry. He has some candles production, as well as an ample supply of non-bread food thanks to numerous farms. This makes him just rich enough to pump out units at will. **Richard's castles are badly designed. They take too much time to build, have long thin lines of walls requiring many defenders and are very light on defenses. Lots of unused space inside the castle. *'The Shah': Serf **The spiritual successor of the Sultan, the Shah exerts moderate control. He is not hesitant to send out raiding parties. **Uses Arabian bowmen and swordsmen, a limited but balanced combination. Falls short to any force, since the Shah uses them in comparably small numbers. Performs best in long battles than in raids. **Develops fairly quickly and has no problem funding units. Has a constant presence on the battlefield and is hard to deny zones from. **A modest industry means enough funds for modest armies. The Shah needs little stone and wood to build his industry and castle. **The Shah's castles are nothing of impressive, but they have some strategic planning. Hoardings and pallisades for single archer spots make the defenders survive a little longer against concentrated fire. *'The Slave King': Jester **On par with the Rat, the Slave King uses disposable groups of weak units in order to disrupt economies. **Uses the lowest tier of Arab units. Slave raids with Arabian bowmen make swift strikes, but survive for not long against a well-established defense. Whirling dervishes are seen among defenses, though. **Very fast to develop, very fast to send raids. Requires almost no income in order to fund his war machine. **The Slave King has almost no industry apart from a couple of farms and stone quarries. This makes him very undemanding and very inefficient in terms of income. **Makes cobweb castles that are very hard to penetrate without siege engines. Surrounds his towers with pitch traps, but uses very little garrison to gun down attackers. Whirling dervishes make all-melee attacks useless. *'The Sultana': Knight **A good all-rounder, the Sultana goes as cheap as possible to gain ground and control her enemies. **The Sultana plays much like the Shah, only a few levels higher in terms of troops. She sends assassins to wreak havoc, while using Arabian archers and swordsmen for general purposes. Her siege engines also include war wagons. **Quite slow to build up, but she can prevail against initial strikes and even hold out for a short while during sieges. She has problems with reinforcing though. **The Sultana builds candles and ale production. Such industry means lots of income for mercenary troops and bonus popularity for taxes. **The Sultana has round castles with strengthened garrisons. She has a few defense engines as well, but prefers thin walls and lookout towers. Easy to siege, harder to chew through due to concentrated defense on the keep and around the mercenary post. Category:Blog posts